DISCUSSION: PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND: AN INSTITUTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE

Land Economics/Use,

ISSUES IN AGRICULTURAL LAND MARKETS: AN EMPIRICAL PERSPECTIVE

Land Economics/Use,

PROJECTED CASH FLOWS AND PROFITABILITY FOR REPRESENTATIVE LOUISIANA FARMS, 2001.

Changes in commodity prices and input costs along with adjustments in capital structure significantly affect farm cash flow requirements and whole farm profitability. These changes coupled with crop yield and price variability increase the need for farm business cash flow and profitability planning on a whole farm basis. Planning for profits is expected to affect both the short and long run success of the business and cash flow planning is expected to allow the manager to establish farm business cash needs for a specified period of time (production period) so that cash commitments are met as they come due. Furthermore, agricultural lenders have become increasingly concerned with loan repayment capacity and are placing relatively more emphasis on cash flow analysis in the loan evaluation process. In general, farm managers who develop cash flow and profitability projections should find it easier to justify and to secure adequate financing for their businesses. The purpose of this report is to supplement the series of annual cost projections for enterprises by providing profitability and cash flow projections for several whole farm situations throughout the state. Whole farm projections of returns and expenses are expected to provide information regarding the relative profitability of individual farming situations throughout the state. Estimates from cash flow projections provide information concerning the timing of cash flows and the distribution of cash flows for individual farm situations and comparison of estimates for these situations provide an indication of the relative cash flow positions of farms across the state. These projections are expected to be of value to farmers, agricultural credit agencies, extension personnel, researchers, and other professionals with an interest in the agricultural production industry. This report is organized into three general parts. Data sources and procedures used in the study are presented in the first section. In the second section, projected income and cash flow statements for representative farms in major crop producing areas of the state are presented and discussed. The final section summarizes the financial projections for representative farms considered in the study.Farm Management,

ESTIMATING THE DIFFERENTIAL CHANGE IN LAND USE ASSOCIATED WITH RESERVOIR CONSTRUCTION

Land Economics/Use,

PROJECTED CASH FLOWS AND PROFITABILITY FOR REPRESENTATIVE LOUISIANA FARMS, 1997

The purpose of this report is to supplement the series of annual cost projections for enterprises by providing profitability and cash flow projections for several whole farm situations throughout the state. Whole farm projections of returns and expenses are expected to provide information regarding the relative profitability of individual farming situations throughout the state. Estimates from cash flow projections provide information concerning the timing of cash flows and the distribution of cash flows for individual farm situations and comparison of estimates for these situations provide an indication of the relative cash flow positions of farms across the state. These projections are expected to be of value to farmers, agricultural credit agencies, extension personnel, researchers, and other professionals with an interest in the agricultural production industry.Agricultural Finance, Farm Management,

EDUCATING THE UNDERGRADUATE AGRIBUSINESS MAJOR

Undergraduate programs in agribusiness education have attracted much interest in recent years. Many university facilities have developed agribusiness educational programs and others are considering the development of such programs. As these programs evolve throughout the country, there are many questions which relate to the structure and future directions of these educational efforts. A review of the issues related to agribusiness program development is presented. A planning process that can be used to focus on the many agribusiness educational issues and provide insight into agribusiness program development in outlined.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

IRRIGATION AND POTENTIAL DIVERSIFICATION BENEFITS IN HUMID CLIMATES

Income variability and means for managing risk continue to receive much attention in farm management research. In this paper, irrigation is presented as a risk-management strategy that offers potential diversification benefits. Potential diversification opportunities largely result from a wider range of enterprise production activities. A portfolio analysis of dryland and irrigated farm scenarios indicates that income stabilizing and diversification effects of irrigation substantially modify the risk-return position of a typical farm in northeast Louisiana. Safety-first considerations along with Target MOTAD programming procedures also are used to evaluate the impact of irrigation on the farm's financial performance.Farm Management,

SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS IN RURAL LAND MARKETS WITH EMPHASIS ON A FLEXIBLE WEIGHTS MATRIX

Empirical research has shown that location and economic development are important factors in rural market. With more and more rural land being converted at the urban fringe, buyer, sellers, planners, appraisers, tax assessors, and others are expected to have an increasing need for information related to the effect of location on rural land values. In econometric land value estimation, misspecification of the variance-covariance matrix results in loss of efficiency, predictive accuracy, and biased inference. The form of the weight matrix is also important. Additional flexibility can be introduced by including a decay parameter, along with different number of neighbors to provide improved estimates. The general objective of this paper is to develop an empirical rural land value model. Specifically, this study emphasizes the use of a more flexible spatial weight matrix by including a decay parameter along with different number of neighbors. Data for this study are based on rural land market sales from the southeast area of Louisiana that were collected using mail survey techniques for the period January 1993 through June 1998. Hedonic models are estimated by SAR using two types of weight matrices: the Delaunay, a rigid form of a weight matrix, and a flexible nearest neighbor asymmetric matrix that includes a decay parameter that lies between 0.4 and 1, along with different number of neighbors m ranging from 6 to 30. Likelihood ratio tests are used to test for statistical fit between spatial and OLS models. Results also suggest that the SAR model based on the Delaunay matrix and nearest neighbor matrix performed better than the OLS model. We also found that this particular set of data, one cannot conclude that the flexible nearest neighbor matrix outperforms the use of a more rigid spatial weight matrix. Further research should continue to test for other forms of spatial weight matrices.Land Economics/Use,

RURAL LAND VALUES AND TENURE ARRANGEMENTS IN LOUISIANA

This report presents the results from the first annual Louisiana Rural Land Market Survey. The survey was designed to collect detailed information from rural real estate professionals regarding market conditions in their areas. Results of this study suggest that land values vary by area of the state and the primary commodity grown on the tract. Substantial variation in land value within areas and by parish suggests a number of factors affect rural land values and markets. Further research will be designed to measure the effects of these various factors on rural real estate markets.Land Economics/Use,

MARGINAL EFFECTS OF LAND CHARACTERISTICS AND PURCHASE FACTORS ON RURAL LAND VALUES

Hedonic models estimate the marginal effect of land characteristics and factors that contribute to a purchase decision on rural land values in submarkets of north Louisiana. While size of tract and mix of land use have expected impacts on rural land values, forces that motivate the buyer also affect price.Land Economics/Use,